As the value and use of information continue to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system (IHS) generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes, thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, an IHS may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
An IHS can be configured in several different configurations ranging from a single, stand-alone computer system to a distributed, multi-device computer system, to a networked computer system with remote or cloud storage systems.
An information handling system can be a part of a data center that includes a plurality of information handling systems interconnected via a plurality of cables of one or more cable types (e.g., twisted pair copper, optical fiber, etc.). Those of ordinary skill in the field of data centers and data center infrastructure will appreciate that the number of cables employed in a large data center is generally very large. In addition, efficient and accurate cable management is a critical requirement for proper functioning and maintenance of a commercial or industrial data center, where availability expectations routinely exceed 99.5%. This is particularly true when equipment is upgraded to add capacity and bandwidth.
A fiber optic cable presents unique cable management challenges in terms of identifying and tracing a cable non-intrusively because conventional optical fiber testers require the cable to be unplugged from the source and connected to the tester. Nevertheless, anecdotal data suggests that the mis-configuration of optical cables, e.g., by plugging one or both of the cable's endpoints, may occur fairly frequently.
Identifying an incorrectly routed optical fiber by tracing the cable to its endpoints cannot be done with a conventional optical tester without unplugging one or both of the endpoints. In addition, speculatively unplugging one or more cables in an attempt to trace or identify the cable or its endpoints is a less than ideal approach. A similar challenge arises when maintenance personnel generate and/or update “cable tags,” tags attached to a cable that identify the cable to which the tag is affixed. When unplugging the cables is not an option, they usually trace the cables to identify the endpoints and update the corresponding tags.